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Colabello leads Twins in rout of Royals

Apr 12, 2014 - 5:40 AM Minneapolis, MN (SportsNetwork.com) - Chris Colabello knocked in three runs, Kurt Suzuki drove in two and the Minnesota Twins pounded Bruce Chen and the Kansas City Royals en route to a 10-1 victory on Friday.

Josmil Pinto added a solo homer and Trevor Plouffe went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI for Minnesota, which scored 10 runs for the third time already this season.

The Twins stopped a nine-game skid at home dating back to last year after being swept by the Athletics in their first series at Target Field, and they and were playing a Royals team that had won seven straight there.

Kyle Gibson (2-0) made sure those streaks came to an end by limiting Kansas City to one run on five hits and four walks over 6 1/3 innings.

Chen (0-1), meanwhile, did not make it out of the fourth and was charged with six runs on seven hits for the Royals, who were coming off a 4-2 homestand.

Kansas City went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, with its only run coming via Billy Butler's RBI groundout in the first.

Six of the Twins' runs came with two outs, including both in their first at- bat as Colabello singled off Alcides Escobar's glove to plate Plouffe, then scored when Norichika Aoki couldn't come up with Jason Kubel's fly ball to the right-field wall. Kubel was awarded an RBI triple on the play.

Pinto sent the first pitch off the bottom of the fourth into the second deck in left for his second home run of the season, and Minnesota took complete control with four more in the inning.

Joe Mauer singled in a run to chase Chen, and Louis Coleman was ineffective in relief. Coleman's wild pitch with the bases loaded pushed another run across, and Colabello doubled down the left-field line to bring in two more for a 7-1 cushion.

Suzuki tacked on a two-run double off Michael Mariot in the seventh, and Plouffe's RBI single an inning later accounted for the final margin.

Game Notes

Terry Steinbach was serving as Twins manager in place of Ron Gardenhire, who is tending to a personal matter this weekend ... Mariot made his MLB debut, while Kubel was playing in his 1,000th game ... Kansas City's starters had posted a 2.03 earned run average through the first eight games ... Twins outfielder Josh Willingham missed a fourth straight game due to a bruised left wrist ... The Royals won last year's season series, 15-4.